Pop star who took a split decision
QUESTION Was the career of 1960s pop star PJ Proby ruined after his trousers split on stage?
AMERICAN singer PJ Proby, born James Marcus Smith in Houston, Texas, in 1938, was more successful in Britain with four Top Ten hits – Hold Me, Together, Somewhere and Maria – in the mid-1960s.
In 1965, he accidentally split his trousers on stage. This had such an effect on the audience that he turned it into part of his act.
Sadly, he had not anticipated the reaction of morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse. Joined by the media on a morality bandwagon, she helped ensure Proby’s career was sidelined.
In 2002, Van Morrison released the song Whatever Happened To PJ Proby? In fact, he was then rekindling his career in 1960s revival tours.
In a nice turnaround, Proby accompanied Morrison on the song for the 2015 Duets album. Sara Turner, Birmingham. A FEW years ago, I interviewed PJ and we talked about the trouser incident during the 1965 Cilla Black & PJ Proby tour, promoted by impresario Bernard Delfont.
This was his response: ‘Iggy Pop can go on in see-through trousers and no underwear and no one cares. The reason for my sacking was nothing to do with the trousers. The manager of Tom Jones paid a lot of money to put Tom in instead of me, and they were seeking an opportunity to do so, but Delfont wouldn’t allow it as I was the bigger name.
‘Mary Whitehouse had already been protesting about me being a bad influence with my movements on stage. I was seen as a risk to young girls because they became hysterical, screamed and shouted and ran down the aisles trying to tear my clothes off.
‘They were waiting for me to do something outrageous so they could use it as an excuse to sack me and put in Tom. The trouser splitting meant they could fire me for so-called moral reasons. The split was only across the knees.
‘They weren’t used to rockers like me in the UK. I’d been the first person to boogie round the stage. I was raised with black music in the States. Everyone used to move around and rock and roll on stage, like James Brown. All the Americans did it; the Brits used to just stand and sing.’
After that, Proby’s career was in the doldrums. He had a drink problem, suffered a heart attack and in the 1980s walked out of the musical Joseph And His Technicolour Dreamcoat in which he had been cast as the Pharaoh.
In the 1990s, impresario Bill Kenwright gave him another chance with a role in Good Rockin’ Tonite, a musical about TV producer Jack Good.
He then appeared in Only The Lonely as a friend of Roy Orbison. In 1996, he starred in Elvis The
Musical and later toured with The Who in Quadrophenia. PJ has had a career resurgence in recent times, taking part in golden oldie 1960s tours. And he can certainly still sing! Jacquee Storozynski-Toll, Southend, Essex.
QUESTION Roughly how many family crests are there in Ireland and which is the oldest?
IT’S estimated that over 1,000 Irish family crests are in existence, with the oldest dating back to the early tenth century.
Many of the original Gaelic or Irish-sounding names were anglicised into similar- sounding English or Welsh names.
As one example among many, the O’Griobhtha sept from Co. Clare ‘borrowed’ the Welsh name Griffin, while as another example, the O’Murchadha sept became the Murphys.
According to Friar Woulfe, an authority on Irish surnames (such authorities have now become commonplace), the first recorded fixed surname is O’Clery or Ó Cleirigh, which became recognisable when the death was recorded in what became the Annals Of The Four Masters of Tighearnach Ua Cleirigh, lord of Aidhne in Co. Galway. This first recorded fixed surname was a ‘first’ not only for Ireland, but for Europe too.
Tighearnach Ua Cleirigh appeared to have been a son of the previous king in that part of the West of Ireland, Maelfabhaill mac Cleireach. Strictly speaking, the appellation given to Tighearnach wasn’t a surname, but an indication that he was t he grandson of Cleireach.
However, his descendants adopted Ó Cléririgh as their surname and it was anglicised as O’Cleary. The practice of having surnames soon became commonplace, meaning that today, numerous family crests are readily available.
Martin Doyle, Dublin.
QUESTION Is it possible to snore and dream at the same time?
IT’S highly unlikely that you will snore and dream at the same time. Throughout the night, we go through a series of repeating sleep cycles every 90 to 110 minutes.
The first two of five stages are light relaxation; the next two are deep sleep, when our body and brain fully relax; and the last is REM (rapid eye movement), when the brain is more active and the body tenses. That’s when we dream. Snoring develops due to vibrations that occur when our throat or tongue muscles relax and block normal air flows.
The deep sleep stages, when we do not dream, are associated with snoring. However, snoring and dreaming may synchronise in certain sleeping disorders.
Sleep apnoea, a condition whereby breathing stops and starts, is caused by the airways becoming relaxed and narrowing throughout the sleep cycles.
Sufferers of this condition may snore all night, even during the REM phases, so may snore and dream at the same time. Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.
QUESTION What is the origin of the suffix drome, as in aquadrome or aerodrome?
WE GET drome from Ancient Greek via Latin and French. The original word was dromus, meaning a race or course.
From the Latin hippo, meaning horse, we get hippodrome, a course for racing horses.
The first was built in Byzantium (later Constantinople and then Istanbul) in AD203.
Today, the word is more commonly associated with theatres. The first Hippodrome theatre opened in London in 1901 as a venue for shows using horses and for theatrical performances.
Drome had earlier been used for venues reserved for special purposes. A velodrome is where cycle racing takes place, with velo coming from a French word used for a bicycle (derived from velocity). The wall of death, where motorcycles are ridden around structures with vertical walls, was originally called a motodrome.
Aerodrome emerged in 1891 as a name for an aircraft, derived from the Ancient Greek aerodromos, meaning running through the air. It was first used to mean a place for aircraft in 1902, but was supplanted by airport in the 1920s.
Syndrome, referring to a medical condition, has the same source. It is a group of symptoms that characterise an illness and comes from the Ancient Greek sundromos, meaning running together. Bob Woodford, Northampton. IS THERE a question to which you have always wanted to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question raised here? Send your questions and answers to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Irish Daily Mail, Embassy House, Herbert Park Lane, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4. You can also fax them to 0044 1952 510906 or you can email them to charles.legge@dailymail.ie. A selection will be published but we are not able to enter into individual correspondence.